Photographic printing apparatus



United States Patent Inventor Robert W. Schumann Madison, Wisconsin Appl. No. 709,247

Filed Feb. 29, 1968 Patented Nov. 3, 1970 Assignee Fabri-Tek Instruments Inc.

Madison, Wisconsin in corporation of Wisconsin PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING APPARATUS Primary Examiner-John M. Horan Attorney- Lew Schwartz ABSTRACT: A photographic printer in which light images of desired characters fall on light sensitive paper. A cylindrical mask or grid having formed therein a plurality of characters is mounted along its longitudinal axis with the characters having their axes at 90 to the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical mask. A plurality of lamps are mounted inside the mask, and the mask is revolved relative to the lamps so that information from a stored source lights a lamp adjacent to a desired character at a proper time to provide a light projection of the character. The projection revolves on a lens, which focuses the desired image on a photosensitive paper. The lens is movably mounted and reciprocates in a direction transverse to the direction of the moving paper, and the reading sense axis of the characters is such that the characters are printed in columns on the paper which are transverse to the direction in which the paper is moved.

. 1 PHOTOGRAI'HIC PRINTING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF INVENTION There are many photographic. printers known in the prior art. Many of the known printers use a movable character grid which provides a selected light projection of an information digit or character which projection is picked up by a lensto be tion at a great rate multiplies-the need for high speed printers.

The apparatus of this invention is advantageous over the priorart in providing a simplified printing system which results in greater speed of printing. The apparatus of this invention is also advantageous. in allowing comparative ease of construe-- tion, low maintenance operation, and comparative low cost.

SUMMARY; OF THE INVENTION The apparatus of this invention achieves its higher speed by providing for the printing of multicharacter words in columns which are transverse to the direction of the movement of the paper on which the printing is done. A generally cylindrical mask or character grid is mounted on a drum in a manner such that the information on the mask will'provide a character light projection which, when focused by a lens on. the paper, will have a reading sense axis transverse to the direction move! ment of the paper. The lens which focuses the light projection on the paper is movable in a, reciprocal manner also along an axis which is transverse to the movement of the paper. For purposes of this specification, reading sense axis" defines the direction in which the information digits or charactersare normally held for reading purposes. v I

To provide the light projections of the information digits or characters, a plurality of lamps are mounted within the cylinder formed by the mask. These lamps are held stationary while the mask is rotated, and the lamps are caused to light when a desired character is adjacent. The original information may be provided, for example, by a computer memory. The information from the computer memory is fed into logic system which lights the desired lamps in coordination with the position of the revolving mask. As such memory systems are DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED. EMBODIMENT In FIG. I there is shown a perspective view of a chassis to which houses the printing apparatus of the this invention. A face plate 11 is provided with various control switches and indicator lights, and is also slotted to. provide a frontal feeding of light sensitive paper 12 on which the printing has been internally accomplished.

FIG. 2 shows in perspective combination the major operational apparatus of the printer of this invention. A paper-holding box l3v is shown mountedon the'back side of plate II. Box

I which are adapted to be connected tov a suitable source of well known in the art, andjthe logic system can be oneofjmany within the design capabilities of one skilled in the art, these systems are not described herein. r

A single "cycle" of printing can be consideredthc printing of one multicharacter word. The-apparatus of this invention is designed such that the flashing lamps will provide sufficient characters for one wordasthe reciprocating lensis constantly moving without greatly distorting theprinted; linear pattern of theword. As the lens continues to move transverse to the direction of movement of the'paper, further word cycles are completed until'an entire column of words'is printed between desired margins on the paper. At this point, the lens will be reciprocnted back to its original starting point to commence printing of the next column. on the paper. The apparatus described herein utilizes continuously moving paper. However, as this does result-in slightly'slanted columns, itisfully within the scope of' this invention to providearatchet-arrangenient for'moving the paper in'selectedsteps,'ifdesired.

IN THEDRAWINGS FIG. I. is a perspective view of a chassis containing the printer of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspectiveview s'howingthe major workingelements of the apparatus of this invention;

FIG. 3 is aeutawayplane view of thecylindrical-msskof this invention, with associaterleiectronics and drivingapparatus; and

energy. Also mounted on face plate 11 is a slotted plate 18. Slidably mounted within the slot in plate 18, is a lens carriage l9.

Mounted on carriage 19, is a lens 20. and, a, pair of stop pins 2.! and 22. Also mounted within the slot of plate 18 and connected: to both sides, of carriage i9 is a sliding section shutter 25. As carriage i9 is slid reciprocally in the slot in plate 18, shutter 25, will slide to a folded or open position as is necessary to prevent light from passing through the slot in plate 18, other than through lens 20.

On opposite ends of plate 18 are mounted a spring wound reel 27, and a motor reel; 28 having a pair of leads 29 adapted to be connected to a suitable source of energy. A wire or string 30 is passed, around reel 27 and 2 8 an connected to'cither side of carriage 1 9. A spring 24, is seriallyconnectedwithin wire 30 to provide the desired tension. Thus, whenmotor28 is actuated, it will drive its reel to slide carriage 19 toward motor 28', at the same time wind ng spring wound reel 27. when motor 28 is not actuated, the spring tension on reel 21 willact on wire 30 to slide the carriage 19, to the other end of the slot in plate. 18. A pair of switches 31 and, 32. are mounted at op- There is also shown a mounting. bracket 35 on whtch is mounted a motor 36 having a pair of leads37 adapted to be connected-to a suitable source of energy. A shaft 38 of motor 3,6 is connected to a drum (shown in FIG. 3) on which is mounted a cylindrically shapedmas'k or grid'40. Abracket 4l is mounted on bracket 35 to hold lamps within the cylinder formed by mask 40. Another bracket 42 mounted on bracket 35 is U-shaped to hold lamps and light responsive devices out,-

side and within mask 40, respectively, as will be better un derstood'in the discussionof FIG. 3 below.

Referring now to. FIG. 3,, it can be more clearly seen that motor 36 is mounted to bracket 35 by. a pair of fastening devices 43 and 44. Shaft 38 extends through an aperture in bracket 33 where it is connected to a drum 45. Mask is connected to drum 45 by a plurality of fastening devices 46. It can be seen that drum45-is sufiiciently'thin to allow a great dealof open area within'thc Cylinder or tube formed byrmask 40." t

It can also be seen that mask 45 contains a plurality of characters 48 shown in the form of numerals arranged in vcolumnszan'd rows, the rows verticalandthe columnshorizonraLin FIG- 3'.

' A pluralityof shieldedlamps aremounted on bracketdl, eachadjacenta column of characters. A plurality of leads All are shown connected to lamps 50, and'are adapted to.be

, connectedto asource of-logicfor signalinput to-lamps'SO.

FIG. 4 is a disgrammatical drawing of the sequential operav tion of the apparatus of this invention.

Also shown are a pair, of shielded lamps 52 mounted on bracket 42 outside the cylinder formed by mask 40. Con

nected to lamps 52 areieadsSJ, which are also adaptedto, he

connected to the'logiccircuitry. Also mounted on bracket 42 and Within the cylinder formed by mask 40 are a pair oi' .light responsive devices-55, such as photoelectric cells. A pair. of

leads56 are shown connected to devices 55, andare adapted 52 and lower photo responsive device 55 as mask 40 rotates. Characters 57 and 58 may be used to indicate the row and cycle position of mask 40, when the information is fed by leads 56 to the logic circuitry.

A better understanding of the sequence of operation of the apparatus of this invention will be found in a study of FIG. 4. in FIG. 4 there is shown a memory 60, such as a digital com-' puter memory, which provides its stored information on signal to a logic network 61, which can be any one of various designs within the capability of one skilled in the art. Network 61 provides signals to the decoder comprising mask 40 and its associated light circuitry. information from light responsive devices 55, garnered by light from lamps 52 shining through characters 57 and 58, can be used to time the logic circuitry. When the logic.has passed a lamp adjacent the desired information character, the light projection from the decoder or mask 40 will impinge on lens which will focus the image on light sensitive paper 12.

For the best understanding of the operation of the apparatus of this invention, reference is first made to FlGS. 3 and 4. The actions of motor 36, shaft 38 and drum 45 cause mask 40 to rotate at a constant speed, thus causing relativemotion between the moving mask and the stationary lamps 50 and 52, and photo responsive devices 55. Asynchronous to the rotation of mask 40, information can be moved from memory storage 60 to, for example, a buffer register in logic circuitry 61. The output of logic circuitry 61 can then be synchronized with the motion of mask 40, relative to lamps 50. For example, a single cycle or rotation of mask 40 can be detected by a light from one of the lower lamps 52 impinging on the lower photo responsive devices 55 when character 58 passes between the two. This signal would be carried through leads 56 back to logic network 61 to indicate one full rotation of the mask.

' Also, characters 57. can correspond to the position of a row of numerals'on the mask as shown in the drawings. Thus, as each character 57 passes between the upper of lamps 52 and the upper of devices 55, a signal can be sent to logic circuitry 61, which can count the signal pulses to determine which row is in 1 position for printing. When the desired row is in position for printing, logic circuitry 61' can send a signal to the one of lam ps 50 which coincides with the desired column. For example, if it is desired to print a (2) as the third significant numeral in a word, the logic circuitry could detect from the pulses caused by characters 57 that the row containing (2s) is in position for printing and the logic could then flash the lamp 50 corresponding to the third column.

As can be seen by reference to FIG. 2, the flashing ofa lamp 50 when adjacent one of the characters 48, will result in alight projection of the character, which projection will be seen by lens 20 to be focused ontolight sensitive paper 12.

Assuming the operation of the printer starts at the time that lens carriage 19 is against stop 33, the structure will be arranged such that stop pin 21 will be in contact with switch 31.

circuitry 61 is sufficient to print multicharacter words without interrupting the continuous motion of lens 20. Depending on the selected speed, which is within the design capability of one skilled in the art, a slight slant to the printed word would be apparent to the eye. However, this slant will not interfere with clear reading of the printed word. The word, of course, is

printed by selecting a different column with each successive flash of lamps 50. Once the desired word has been completed, the rotation through the various columns by the flashing of selected lamps 50 can be repeated as desired.'

It is important to note that the reading sense axes of the character images which reach paper 12 through lens 20 are transverse to the direction in which paper 12 is moving. Thus, in one sweep or reciprocation of lens 20, and entire column of multidigit words has been printed; rather than the prior art procedure of printing a single line for each sweep of a lens across the paper.

When lens 20 has moved across the length of the slot in plate 18, stop pin 22 will contact switch 32 shutting off motor reel 28. During the movement of carriage 19 by motor 28 the .action of wire 30 will have caused spring wound reel 27 to have rotated to increaseits spring tension. The release of pulling force at the turnoff of motor 28.will allow reel 27 to unwind against its inner spring, thus moving the carriage 19 rapidly back to stop 33, where stop pin 21 will again contact switch 31 to repeat the process.

in the embodiment of the drawings the motion of paper 12 is continuous, thus causing a slight angling or slant of printed columns. However, if desired, the paper can be moved by a ratchet arrangement actuated by, for example, stop pin 21 contacting a second switch for activating the ratchet at the time of the return of carriage 19 to stop 33.

Also in the embodiment of the drawings, it is noted that the reading sense axes of the characters 48 in mask 40 are transverse to the direction of movement of paper 12, to provide the desired reading sense in the final columnated printed result, without the use of a positioning lens. While this structure was used in the preferred embodiment to save the cost of additional positioning lens apparatus, it would be within the scope of this invention to arrange the information digits or characters in a different position and do the aligning with lenses or other structure, as long as the final image which impinges on light sensitive paper 12 has a reading sense axis transverse to the direction of movement of the paper. Further, it will be noted that mask 40 has characters 48 arranged to compensate for the normal lens image inversion. it would also be within the scope of this invention to arrange for lens inversion with other structure, such as a separate or second lens to perform the inversion. r

The speed advantages of the above described method and structure of photographic printing will be readily understood when-it is realized that this invention provides for the printing of an entire column of multicharacter words with each reciprocation of lens 20. Prior art systems, on the contrary, would print only a single line of digits with each sweep of the lens across the paper. Further, this greatly increased speed of printing is accomplished with a structure that is comparatively low in cost. The structure described herein has been built and found to operate in the manner described above.

lclaim: I

1.Printing apparatus comprising: character projection means including mask means having formed therein a plurality of characters, a plurality of selectable light sources, first means for providing relative movement between said'mask means and light sources, and second means for selecting said light sources and adapted to receive signals from a source of information to be printed; lens means for receiving said character projections and providing image outputs; means mounting said lens means for reciprocation along a first axis; means for mounting light sensitive paper for movement into image receiving relation with said lens along a second axis transverse to said first axis; and said character projection means and said lens means combining to provide character image-outputs having reading sense axes transverse to said second axes.

2. The apparatus ofclaim l in which: said mask means comprises a cylinder h'aving characters formed therein in rows and columns; said light sources comprise lamps mounted within said cylindrical mask and aligned one each with each column of characters; and said first means comprises motor means of travel of said carriage; said switch means connected to said motion imparting means for controlling the direction of motion of said carriage; and sliding section shutter means mounted in the slot and connected to said carriage.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 in which said motion imparting means comprises: first and second reel means mounted on said plate at opposite ends of the slot; said first reel being motor driven; said second wheel being spring driven; and means operatively interconnecting said carriage and said reels. 

